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Church Of St John The Baptist, Asenovgrad
The Church of St John the Baptist ( bg, църква „Свети Йоан Кръстител“, ''tsarkva „Sveti Yoan Krastitel“''), also known as the Church of St John the Precursor or, locally, Sveti Yani or Sveti Yan, is a small Middle Ages, medieval Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox church in the town of Asenovgrad in Plovdiv Province, south central Bulgaria. The church is located on a cliff west of the town and dates to the 12th–14th centuries. Its exterior is decorated with many blind arches, while its interior features mostly frescoes from the 18th century, with some fragments of 14th-century murals. Its high position and the arrowslits on the north wall made the church suitable as a defensive outpost. Location and history The Church of St John the Baptist, known to the locals as Sveti Yani or Sveti Yan, is located on a high cliff on the western outskirts of Asenovgrad, which belong to the old town. To allow its construction, the terrain around its founda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad ( bg, Асеновград ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province. It is the largest town in Bulgaria that is not a province center. Previously known as ''Stanimaka'' (; el, Στενήμαχος), it was renamed in 1934 after the 13th-century tsar Ivan Asen II. Asenovgrad also includes the districts of Gorni Voden and Dolni Voden, which until 1986 were separate villages. According to the census data of 2021, the population of the city is 47 815 people. Above the town are the remains of the Asen Fortress, an old fortress that was strengthened under Tsar Ivan Asen II and turned into an important military post in the defense of the southern borders of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. The city is known for its many churches, monasteries and chapels and is often called Little Jerusalem. It is also known as the "City of Bridal Gowns" because of the large number of ateliers and shops for wedding dresses and acce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cross-in-square
A cross-in-square or crossed-dome floor plan, plan was the dominant architectural form of middle- and late-period Byzantine Empire, Byzantine church architecture, churches. It featured a square centre with an internal structure shaped like a cross, topped by a dome. The first cross-in-square churches were probably built in the late 8th century, and the form has remained in use throughout the Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox world unto the present day. In the West, Donato Bramante's first design (1506) for St. Peter's Basilica was a centrally planned cross-in-square under a dome and four subsidiary domes. In German, such a church is a , or ‘cross-dome church’. In French, it is an , ‘church with an inscribed figure, inscribed cross’. Architecture Architectural form A cross-in-square church is centered around a quadratic cella, naos (the ‘square’) which is divided by four columns or piers into nine bay (architecture), bays (divisions of space). The inner five divisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theotokos
''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεοῦ and Θεοφόρος ("Who gave birth to one who was God", "Whose child was God", respectively). The title has been in use since the 3rd century, in the Syriac tradition (as ) in the Liturgy of Mari and Addai (3rd century)''Addai and Mari, Liturgy of''. Cross, F. L., ed. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. Oxford University Press. 2005. and the Liturgy of St James (4th century). The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 decreed that Mary is the ''Theotokos'' because Her Son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person from two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united. The title of Mother o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bachkovo Monastery
The Bachkovo Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos ( bg, Бачковски манастир "Успение Богородично", ''Bachkovski manastir'', ka, პეტრიწონის მონასტერი, ''Petritsonis Monasteri''), archaically the Petritsoni Monastery or Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa is a major Eastern Orthodox monastery in Southern Bulgaria. It is located on the right bank of the Chepelare River, 189 km from Sofia and 10 km south of Asenovgrad, and is directly subordinate to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The monastery is known and appreciated for the unique combination of Byzantine, Georgian and Bulgarian culture, united by the common faith. History The monastery was founded in 1083 by Prince Gregory Pakourianos, a prominent statesman and military commander in the Byzantine service, as a Georgian-dominated Orthodox monastery. He set up a seminary(school) for the youth at the monastery. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary ("os" is "bone" in Latin). The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than in coffins. Persian ossuaries In Persia, the Zoroastrians used a deep well for this function from the earliest times (c. 3,000 years ago) and called it '' astudan'' (literally, "the place for the bones"). There are many rituals and regulations in the Zoroastrian faith concerning the ''astudans''. Jewish ossuaries During the Second Temple period, Jewish burial customs were varied, differing based on class and belief. For the wealthy, one option available included primary burials in burial caves, followed by secondary buri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asen's Fortress
Asen's Fortress ( bg, Асенова крепост, ''Asenova krepost''), identified by some researchers as Petrich (Петрич), is a medieval fortress in the Bulgarian Rhodope Mountains, south of the town of Asenovgrad, on a high rocky ridge on the left bank of the Asenitsa River. Asen's Fortress is above sea level. History The earliest archaeological findings date from the time of the Thracians, the area of the fortress being also inhabited during the Ancient Roman and Early Byzantine period. The fortress gained importance in the Middle Ages, first mentioned in the statute of the Bachkovo Monastery as ''Petrich'' in the 11th century. The fortress was conquered by the armies of the Third Crusade. It was considerably renovated in the 13th century (more precisely 1231) during the rule of Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II to serve as a border fortification against Latin raids, as evidenced by an eight-line wall inscription. The foundations of fortified walls—the outer ones being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Of The Holy Mother Of God, Asen's Fortress
The Church of the Holy Mother of God ( bg, църква "Света Богородица", ''tsarkva "Sveta Bogoroditsa"'') is the popular name of a medieval Eastern Orthodox church located in Asen's Fortress. It lies near Asenovgrad in the Rhodope Mountains of Plovdiv Province, south central Bulgaria. Constructed most likely in the 12th century, it features two stories, of which the upper story is the church proper and the lower story is of unclear function. The rectangular tower over the church's narthex is regarded as the earliest preserved of its kind in the Balkans. Fragments of frescoes are visible on the walls of the church's upper story. Location and history The Church of the Holy Mother of God lies on an elevation near the road from Plovdiv to Smolyan, south of the town of Asenovgrad (medieval ''Stenimachos''). It forms part of a now mostly ruined castle known as Asen's Fortress, of which the church is the best preserved building. The church is dated by most scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick. The earliest ceramics made by humans were pottery objects (''pots,'' ''vessels or vases'') or figurines made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica, hardened and sintered in fire. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products, as well as a wide range of materials developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering, such as in semiconductors. The word "'' ceramic''" comes from the Greek word (), "of pottery" or "for pottery", from (), "potter's clay, tile, pottery". The earliest kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by size. For example, in the UK a brick is defined as a unit having dimensions less than and a block is defined as a unit having one or more dimensions greater than the largest possible brick. Brick is a popular medium for constructing buildings, and examples of brickwork are found through history as far back as the Bronze Age. The fired-brick faces of the ziggurat of ancient Dur-Kurigalzu in Iraq date from around 1400 BC, and the brick buildings of ancient Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan were built around 2600 BC. Much older examples of brickwork made with dried (but not fired) bricks may be found in such ancient locations as Jericho in Palestine, Çatal Höyük in Anatolia, and Mehrgarh in Pakistan. These structures have survived from the Stone Ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diaconicon
The diaconicon ( el, διακονικόν, translit=diakonikon; Slavonic: ''diakonik'') is, in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, the name given to a chamber on the south side of the central apse of the church, where the vestments, books, etc., that are used in the Divine Services of the church are kept (the sacred vessels are kept in the Prothesis, which is on the north side of the sanctuary). Diaconicon and prothesis are collectively known as pastophoria. The diaconicon contains the ''thalassidion'' (piscina), a sink that drains into an honorable place where liquids such as the water used to wash holy things may be poured, and where the clergy may wash their hands before serving the Divine Liturgy. The diaconicon will usually have cabinets or drawers where the vestments and church hangings (antependia) may be safely stored. Here will also be kept the reserved charcoal, and a place for heating the ''zeon'' (boiling water that is poured into the chalice before Commun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prothesis (altar)
The Prothesis is the place in the sanctuaryTraditionally, in Orthodox churches, the entire sanctuary is referred to as the "Altar", the altar table itself being called the "Holy Table" or the "Throne". This traditional terminology will be used throughout the article. in which the Liturgy of Preparation takes place in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches. Prothesis and diaconicon are collectively referred to as pastophoria. The Prothesis is located behind the Iconostasis and consists of a small table, also known as the Table of Oblation, on which the bread and wine are prepared for the Divine Liturgy. It is most often placed on the north side of the Altar, or in a separate chamber (itself referred to as the ''Prothesis'') on the north side of the central apse. Originally, the Prothesis was located in the same room as the Holy Table, being simply a smaller table placed against the eastern wall to the north of the Holy Table. During the reign of the Emperor Justin II ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, modern paganism, and in certain Islamic communities around Caucasia and Asia Minor. Many historical-medieval faiths also made use of them, including the Roman, Greek, and Norse religions. Etymology The modern English word '' altar'' was derived from Middle English '' altar'', from Old English '' alter'', taken from Latin '' altare'' ("altar"), probably related to '' adolere'' ("burn"); thus "burning place", influenced by '' altus'' ("high"). It displaced the native Old English word '' wēofod''. Altars in antiquity File:Tel Be'er Sheva Altar 2007041.JPG, Horned altar at Tel Be'er Sheva, Israel. File:3217 - Athens - Sto… of Attalus Museum - Kylix - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
